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Last year, the win went up in smoke at the finish line for Marc Marquez, who had to give up his ambitions of victory early this year. In fact, it was not a day when the Spaniard was able to attack, having to settle for sixth place behind Alvaro Bautista’s Ducati GP16.
“The start of the race was good, but I immediately began to suffer at the hands of the Yamaha’s speed and especially Ducati’s speed on the straights, losing positions. The biggest problem, however, was another, namely the front tyre. I had to choose the medium compound, because with the hard I felt good but only for twelve laps since the tyre deteriorated. Michelin advised me and I agreed to choose the medium because with the hard I would not have finished the race” Marc said.
This is a statement that may cause many a nose to wrinkle based on the normal information available on compounds, but Marc cleared up any doubts straight away.
“People may think that the medium is softer than the hard, but in this case, the medium had a right hand side (the one more stressed at Mugello) that was harder than the hard compound. Consequently, I chose this compound, but on the left side of the tyre, softer than the other, I soon began to suffer, so I realized that this was not the right day to take risks. In any case, we worked well throughout the weekend and the bike performed very well on the corners.”
The next goal the defending champion has in his sights is now his home race of Barcelona, which may fill in some doubts on this as yet uncertain championship: “The season is very difficult to understand at the moment since every manufacturer has had positive and negative races. The problem is that we are coming from three less than thrilling races, whereas Yamaha has only had one dark day in Jerez, so we need to work hard in order to be able to contend for the podium or the win at Montmelò.”
But if the Italian round was less than thrilling for Marc Marquez, on the other side of the garage, there are even fewer smiling faces since Dani Pedrosa bid the race farewell on the last lap, crashing out while attempting to overtake Crutchlow: “I suffered from lack of grip throughout the whole weekend and in the race it was perhaps even worse. I had no grip from the start, both on the front and on the rear, being overtaking by a lot of riders without the chance to fight back. The bike also moved around a lot on the straights, without being able to really control it.”
A day to be entirely forgotten that ended, as mentioned, in the worst of ways.
"On the last lap I crashed while trying to pass Cal, ending up taking him to the ground as well. I am really sorry because it is bad when you make a mistake and someone else pays for it. Fortunately, we are both fine, so we can think about the next race, hoping to have better luck.”
